Saturday, June 7, 2014

The Importance of Yes - #celebratelu

[The Celebrate Link-up is hosted by Ruth Ayres on her blog. Join in each Saturday with your own post about celebrations.]Yesterday, Linda Urban joined my students’
RIF Pizza Party. It was, easily, one of the highlights of their year. They’ll never forget that she said yes.

You don't have to spend a lot of time with Linda to recognize
that she is a special person.If you’ve met Linda, you know what I mean.She radiates energy and positivity. (Every time I talk to her, I find myself
hoping a little will rub off on me!) When you talk to Linda, you know she is listening. When you listen to Linda,
you hear her genuine nature. She is honest, humorous, and respectful of young
people. This is a stand out quality. She appreciates kids. (It’s no wonder she is able to capture their hearts and minds so adeptly
in her work.) I’ve been fortunate to connect with Linda and to share my
students with her. She has helped me to make their literate lives richer.

My students have come to know Linda through email exchanges over the last five months. She has shared writing
experiences and excerpts related to her books and her current work in progress
with them. They have sent her notes of encouragement in this long stage of revision,
offered their opinions as readers, and posed questions as writers—about everything
from suggestions for revision to wonderings about critical friends to
curiosities about the publishing process.

However, as the students became more involved
in the writing exchange and their enthusiasm built, they began to voice an
inevitable wish, and addressing it had been an unspoken concern of my mine. When, they wanted to know, could they meet Linda? Would I invite her to
come to our school? (It didn’t help that a recent email had highlighted
Linda’s school visits in Michigan and California!) I danced my way through
explaining the real world of author visit fees and lack of funding for such
visits at our school. And mostly, it seemed, they understood. Until weeks later
when we were composing an email to Linda and our class had just been announced
the winners of the RIF reading contest. As the winning class, they would be
treated to a Pizza Party, and…HEY! Couldn’t
they invite Linda to come?!

If you’re chuckling to yourself or even
laughing out loud, then maybe you understand my reaction to their request. My
adult mind was swarming with imagined ideas about how busy Linda probably was
and about how dismissive of her schedule and position as an author it might
seem to make such a suggestion. To this point, I had done really well at
transcribing their actual words and responses to her in our emails, no matter
how tempting it was to “fix it up” and insert adult politeness. To be entirely
honest, if not for the other support staff that were present that day, I
probably would have made an excuse for why it wasn’t appropriate to ask. But in
the end, I honored the students’ wishes, and though my mouse hovered over the “send”
button for a long while (Imagine the thickening anticipation of my students!),
I did send the email that invited Linda to the students’ Pizza Party. And then
I immediately started preparing them for possible disappointment.

I admit: when Linda’s response came, I
peeked. And
then I grinned.

She
had found a just right answer for my 27 hopeful ten-year olds.

The
next day when we opened the email together and read her answer, the students
whooped with excitement at her suggestion that she make her own pizza and join
their party through Skype. They floated with untethered joy, balloons popping
up one after the other. “She said YES!” they cheered at me, maybe respectfully
saying, I told you so.

Yesterday,
Linda Urban joined my students’ RIF Pizza Party. Their Skype was comfortable
and easy-going. They smiled a lot (I smiled a lot) and the candidness with which shared their
literacy lives with her reflected to me they felt important, valued, special. Linda
is an author they appreciate and respect, and she made time to talk—and listen.
They’ll never forget that she said yes.

And now I'm thinking... Do I say yes as often as
possible? Do I let my "adult" voice inhibit opportunities? In what ways could I grow more hope and inspiration if I said yes
more often?

Today I celebrate
this:

I celebrate the
growth my students have made as readers and writers through the discovery of
favorite authors and books.

I celebrate the
generosity of Linda and other authors who truly appreciate the value of
connecting to readers and what students have to offer.

I celebrate the
importance of saying “yes” at the right time, to the hope that “yes” inspires,
and the sense of worthiness “yes” provides to our students.